Ask 411 Wrestling 05.30.07: Concussions, Billed Weights, Angle on Abstinence and More!

Posted by Steve Cook on 05.30.2007

Including a very special look at the Conquistadores' shocking performance at Survivor Series 1988! Si.

It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm Steve Cook, and I hope you all had a happy Memorial Day weekend. I'd also like to thank all of you who sent well wishes for my birthday this past Sunday...oh, wait, I didn't get any of those. They must have been sent to the wrong e-mail address, that happens a lot. No biggie, this week we've got plenty of questions to fill the time with. Right now there's only 36 e-mails sitting in the in-box, which might be a record low since I started this thing up what seems like ages ago. So go ahead and send something in, because it might actually be responded to quickly for once.

I haven't been able to listen to the latest Csonka podcast yet, but I'm sure my name was insulted some more for no good reason. It's like I always say...don't hate, appreciate. Speaking of hating and appreciating, check me out tomorrow in 411 Fact or Fiction! I'll be going one on one with my arch-nemesis Bayani Domingo, who has been a thorn in my side ever since he insisted that Rey Mysterio was the most under-utilized wrestler on the WWE roster. At long last, 411 readers will finally get to see a showdown that's been building since November 2005...no more of this overplayed Csonka vs. Randle stuff, it's Cook vs. Domingo, and the winner gets a hot Asian chick!

I can hope, right?

Comments, Corrections & other "C" words

Hey Steve, It's Matt Adamson. I just wanted to point something funny out.. Ok so a reader wrote to you... Feel free to post this in your column in some form or another. My original statement said something along the lines of "That's a tough call really... Right now All Japan is a clear #3, but some would argue New Japan is bigger than NOAH because they outdraw their total for the year, but I think that NOAH is currently the most popular because 1. It's the only one making any headway in popularity, and 2. They would get the biggest crowd in the Tokyo Dome of the 3 no doubt about it." Like I said, it a tough call, and part of the reason I said "I think" was due to the fact that I had NO IDEA and still have no idea about what TV ratings are in Japan. If this guy knows, he can feel free to drop me an email. Pass it along to him if you can. [e-mail].

I'm always down with knowing what the TV ratings are and if New Japan's shows are indeed outdrawing G+ shows NOAH runs. It's a fact that NOAH's big shows outdraw New Japans, there is no question there, which was entirely what I was basing my "thoughts" on. They also outdrew NJ in the Tokyo Dome in 2004 and 2005. If they had run the dome in 2006 I imagine the same would have happened. I'd be interested in knowing Matt Short's opinion...I do agree with the guys analysis of Dragon Gate, Hustle and Zero-One though. I don't and probably won't ever watch Big Japan. I don't enjoy light tube matches and such. I tried watching one of their shows from a couple years ago (their big show supposedly) and hated it. There is a lot of passion, but it's not my style, but then again, I said nothing about them so no worries.

Either way, without these TV ratings in my email box that he says he knows, my point still stands that an argument CAN be made for both NOAH and New Japan as the top promotion in Japan. - 411's Matt Adamson

The following is an e-mail to Matt from another Matt on this site that I am using here because they said I could...

"Hey Matt,

Until now I hadn't really considered which company was bigger since
they get relatively the same amount of coverage in Puroresu Weekly. TV's
kind of hard to factor in Japan because there's almost NO wrestling on
basic TV at least where I am. I've heard rumors from fellow students
about picking up NOAH in the next prefecture over but I can't say for
sure. Most people aren't going to have cable in Japan, that's my
experience with it. So my guess would be that TV ratings really mean
jack in the grand scheme of things for New Japan and NOAH. They're more
concerned about getting people to come to shows rather than watching
them on TV. Putting a Budokan show on PPV makes sense, they get revenue
from it, but live events (at least the NOAH ones I've been to) would be
pretty lacking as two hour wrestling shows for most people aside from
die hard puro fanatics. It's mostly why they're on cable. Basic TV has
to be fast paced with constant bright lights and Hard Gay shoving his
crotch in the face of some Korean pop singer. If you're going to see a
wrestler on TV it'll probably be Antonio Inoki and he'll probably be
surrounded by 20 women and choking some comedian.

I'd contend that TV ratings really don't matter in Japan. If I had to
guess at who gets bigger ratings, I'd say NOAH because they're always
advertising their shows. As for who I think is actually bigger, it's a
tough call but I'd go with NOAH. I have no idea how much money either
company is making, so I'll leave that alone. But for 2007 NOAH has been
outdrawing New Japan, especially at the Budokan. Hell, Misawa vs. Sano
was enough of a draw for the last show apparently and the Northern
Navigation has been doing great so far. The shows I've been to were sold
out and the crowds were HOT for just about every match. New Japan making
more money I think has more to do with them charging more for tickets.
NOAH is pretty affordable, by a good bit I'd say. I'd say that NOAH ends
up outdrawing because they can put on a really good undercard, even if
they've got a weak main event that no one cares about (Misawa vs. Sano).
Most of their best matches in the past few months haven't even been the
main event. They have great guys floating around in the undercard like
Akiyama, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, KENTA, Marufuji, Akitoshi Saito, Ogawa, etc.
Say what you want about some of those guys, but they are insanely over.
NOAH's really weak in the main event scene right now, but any match with
Ricky Marvin in it is worth the price of admission. Plus, NOAH gets the
added bonus of being able to bring out guys like Taue, Misawa, and
pretty soon Kobashi will be back. Add in NOAH's great working
relationships with ROH, WLW, and Dragon Gate they have a lot of depth.
So New Japan makes more money, but with NOAH you have a better and more
popular product.

Wow, that's about as far from a straight answer as I could give. That's
pretty much just my own take from my own observations, but I'll see if I
can find you some actual numbers. Ugh arguments involving TV ratings
suck ass, they're so damn pointless. Especially with ratings in Japan.
Dammit....

I would say he was right about how he (whoever wrote Ask 411 that week)
ranked DG and Hustle. Dragon Gate and Hustle are on a completely
different tier when compared to NOAH or New Japan. Almost impossible to
compare them since their style of shows are so vastly different.

Nope, no Samurai TV or GAORA in my house. I kind of get the impression
that cable is a big luxury for people here in Japan. I'm not entirely
sure how G+ works. They definetly charge for the finale of Navigations,
but I'm not so sure about all the ones in between. It might even be a
premium channel, the one place I've been to that had cable didn't have
it." - 411's Matt Short

Hey, Zbysco talking about Spicolli came up in your column a couple of weeks ago... well, I just watched a shoot interview with Larry Zbysco, and he claims that when Schiavone brought up Spicolli on that show, he was going to break kayfabe, but he immediately had the director yelling in his ear not to say anything nice about Spicolli, so he had to respond as he did. - Richard

"Who was Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. And no, I'm not going to do the Abbott & Costello routine that everybody else does when talking about this lame-ass gimmick. And people wonder why Raw lost the ratings war 83 weeks in a row to Nitro when Raw was trotting out matches like The Goddwins vs. TL Hopper & Who"

A funny note on this, here in Calgary Jim attends a lot of WWE PPVs at a bar, and will deny to this day he was ever "Who." Press him on it and he's happy to threaten to break your arms.

"2. What the hell does X-Pac's name mean?

It's a play off of 6-Pac, which was a name Sean Waltman liked to use for himself in WCW. 6-Pac was a play off of 2-Pac, who was a famous rapper that got shot"

I had the understanding that X-pac was a play off of 6-pac which originates from WCW. When he went from wwe to wcw they took the name "1-2-3 KID" added up the numbers and just called him Syxx. (That his name in a few of the video games) Then as the NOW thing gained steam he got a rep as a drinker and a partier so he referred to himself as the "6-pack" in drinking terms. Then 6-pac to X-pac due to walking straight into DX. - Matthew Murray

He was also the sixth member of the NWO.

I apologize if someone already mentioned this but I remember reading an article on this site in the late 90's about D-Lo Brown being European and IC champ at the same time. I also believe that he is the only wrestler to hold those two specific titles at the same time.

Did you also mention stone cold holding the wwf title and the tag titles with taker? And didn't HBK hold the European and WWF title at the same time? - Dom

D-Lo wasn't the only one to do that, as Kurt Angle also pulled it off in 2000. Jeff Jarrett won both titles from D-Lo, but gave the European title to Mark Henry for helping him beat D-Lo.

I just wanted to bring up something that Hogan said on one of his infamous Bubba the Love Sponge Show interviews that I heard a couple moths ago. He said and I quote that "he would love to go to TNA, it's just that they haven't brought the money." He also said that a Russo vs Hogan storyline would be the "hottest thing going in wrestling". Finally he also said that he would put aside differences to make money, and I quote from him, "If there's money to be made, let's make it brother."

Again the word is from Hogan, so take it as you will. We should prolly take to note that this was said when the Hogan/Vince/WM 23 talks were still going on, so this also could be classic Hogan politic-ing. Who knows? Well, I just thought I'd bring that to you. Hope all is well, and keep up the good work. See-ya. - Chad Rivera

I'm leaning towards Hogan politicing, but thanks for the info. I try not to keep up with what Hogan's babbling on about on any given week because it just doesn't interest me.

All of the major stars of the past 20 years have had only ONE finisher:

The Rock = Rock Bottom
Stone Cold Steve Austin = Stunner
HHH = Pedigree
Shawn Michaels = Sweet Chin Music
Bret Hart = Sharpshooter
Hulk Hogan = Leg Drop
Ric Flair = Figure 4
Mick Foley = Mandible Claw

All of these stars had other finishers for lesser matches, but for major matches they always used THE finisher. There are two wrestlers who have had multiple finishers; Undertaker and Kurt Angle. In Undertaker's case he's had one finisher for each of his characters (Tombstone for Dead Man, Last Ride for Biker). He would use both moves for both characters, but his opponent would kick out of the move not associated with THAT character (IE. Batista kicks out of the Last Ride, but not the Tombstone). And in Angle's case his finishers changed as they were added to his repertoire. In the beginning he would win with the Angle Slam (he had the Ankle Lock, but wouldn't win with it in big matches). Then he moved on to the Angle Lock (he still had the Angle Slam, but wouldn't win big matches with it). This pattern also applies to Chris Jericho. But in Cena's case they keep flittering between the FU and the STFU. Of late it seems that the STFU is being used most often. My other problem with him using a submission finisher so often is that he doesn't spend time working over his opponent in such a way as to set up this move. Benoit does; Flair does; Angle doesn't, but he has the mat skills and style to make you believe that he can slap it on and win at any time. Cena isn't that type of wrestler. This isn't a criticism of him; I think that he's a good power wrestler. He just shouldn't be winning with submission moves until his style supports it. Right now it's more like the Ultimate Warrior using all of his usual moves, and then winning with an arm bar. - Wes

So your argument is that wrestlers that have less ways to end matches are better than wrestlers that can only come up with one? I will agree with you on the point that Cena should work the areas that the STFU affect.

IMHO,the biggest pops I remember from regular ass TV...
1. 3Hs return to tv after his first quad injury, it started out pretty loud but when he appeared, holy crap...truly the roof being blown off the dump
2. the raw a few weeks before this years Wrestlemania, when stone cold returned..maybe not the loudest but certainly the biggest crowd reaction to anything on the show in recent years..

and my personal fave
3. austin and the zamboni, JR screaming "austin got mcmahon, austin got mcmahon" the crowd going nucking futs....ahh the good ol days... - Capn

You got me thinking about a scenario in which Flair, at 58 could win the World Title. Here is my idea, tell me what you think.
At One Night Stand, Flair loses a first blood match to Carlito. After the match, Carlito is mocking a bleeding Flair backstage when Cena comes in to check on him and get rid of Carlito. Flair goes NUTS giving Cena a similar rant that he gave to Carlito months ago about the young guy taking his spot and Cena being a blip on the radar while he is Ric Flair and on the Mt. Rushmore of Pro-Wrestling. He screams at Cena for being a rapper and taking time off to make albums and leaves all crazy. Cena retains and beats Khali in the main event.
On Raw: Flair calls out Cena. He apologizes and calls him the future and says he was just upset. He says he is jealous of Cena because he sees Cena as a new Ric Flair and a Horsemen. Cena tells him there is only one Ric Flair and offers him a title match TONIGHT! Coach interrupts because he is a prick and says Cena doesn't make matches. He says Flair is not championship material because he is 58 years old. Cena brings up Vince at 60+ being the ECW Champion until ONS. Coach says they can wrestle tonight as a tag team against Khali and UMAGA. Flair and Cena in the main event get DQ' ed and use chairs to clear out the heels and stand tall.
Next Week on Raw: Cena and Flair are in the ring. Coach comes out and says Flair can have his title match against Cena, but he has to win his match tonight. He is facing Khali and UMAGA in a Handicap match, which is No DQ (because of the chair use last week), and if Cena interferes, he has authority from Vince to not only strip Cena of the title but fire Flair TONIGHT! Flair gets mauled in the main event and Cena comes out to the apron to distract the heels and Coach when BOBBY LASHLEY (ECW Champ) jumps the guardrail and destroys the heels with chairshots and Spears Umaga. He kills Coach with a powerslam, and takes his hand Austin style and counts the pin. Flair wins and is #1 Contender!
Vengeance: Cena is out wrestling Flair and dominating every part of the match. Flair gets sporadic offense and a figure 4 attempt but Cena counters and controls. Cena locks in the STFU but Flair gets the ropes. Cena plays the match as if he doesn't want to beat Flair. He has Flair in the dead center of the ring and goes for the 5-Knuckle Shuffle but in a call back to Vader vs. Flair at Starrcade 93, Flair clips the leg and rolls Cena up out of nowhere (using the tights of course) for the win and title!!! Cena stands there shocked and Flair is a mix of blood, sweat and tears.
Raw: You have a Flair celebration cut off by Randy Orton. "Legend Killer...blah blah blah" but Flair says he owes Cena a rematch. Orton weasels in and at Summerslam we have a Triple Threat between Flair/Cena/Orton which segues into a Cena/Orton feud until the H's come back. - Dan from Brooklyn

I just think that's a ton of work to put over a guy who just doesn't have it anymore. I'm a big Ric Flair fan, but anybody who's seen his recent matches has to admit that he isn't even a shell of what he used to be. The guy can still take an asskicking, but his offense makes Giant Baba's non-egg cracking palm strikes look stiff. I don't see it.

While reading your last column, I noticed you described the infamous Vince Russo/Hulk Hogan confrontation at Bash at the Beach 2000.
You stated that Russo buried him in an interview and that there is a lawsuit.

I was always under the impression that this was a work because:
The WCW TITLE MATCH took place in the middle of the card, this cleared the way for Russo to book, I believe, Booker T vs. Jeff Jarrett. Therefore, it was pretty obvious that something was up (much like when Angle vs. Mark Henry was the main even at RR '06..which of course resulted in Undertaker "destroying" the ring).

Then again, the WCW commentators sounded shocked and were basically saying ,"wrestling's fake,look at all the politics that go on backstage", and then they quickly jumped into some other shit storyline.

So my main question is, was that damn incident a work or a shoot? - Abelardo

General opinion is that it was a work that turned into a shoot after Russo went above and beyond the call of duty in his comments about Hogan. Usually lawsuits aren't filed unless there's a legitimate bone of contention between the two parties, so Hogan was obviously pissed off at the time. That may have changed in the last seven years, who knows.

I believe Edge inadvertently started it ("You Suck" during Angle's entrance music). Edge was trying to cheer Angle up for some reason, he told Angle that he had lyrics for Angle's entrance song.
Edge pulled out a kazoo, and started singing "Angle, Angle, Angle, Angle". But some how it got twisted to the famous "You Suck, you suck" chant. - Alan Thomas

The thing about the WWF Light Heavyweight/J-Crown relationship that threw me was this... During Ultimo Dragon's reign, he was showing up in WCW with the eight championship belts. I have the one show on tape, Starrcade '96/'97 (the tape says 1997, despite it taking place in very late December). Ultimo Dragon actually put the J-Crown titles on the line against Dean Malenko for his WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Dragon was victorious and thus for a short period held NINE championship belts at once... including both the WCW Cruiserweight and WWF Light Heavyweight Championships. I don't think WCW made reference to the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship being one of the titles, however. I was always under the impression that WWF pulled the title out after discovering it had been on WCW television. After checking the dates now, and noticing WWF didn't vacate the championship for roughly a year, however, either news was really slow, Vince didn't care or else he didn't want Bischoff to think he cared.

Oh, and as for Kane's slimming down from between the SD 1 and 2 videos... I read a news piece a while back where it was said that Kane was the go-to guy when it came to gaining or losing weight in WWE. Apparently, he knew what drugs worked the best, what doses wrestler's should take, working out, eating, etc... basically, he was the backstage nutritionist. Now whether the weight change was an injury, or for other reasons... I don't know. However, this should help explain Kane being the same Kane... He's just a guy that knows how bodies work. - Jimmy K.

Honestly, I'm surprised Bischoff didn't exploit it because that's the kind of guy he was. Maybe even he didn't know about the WWF light heavyweight title being in the J-Crown.

I've never heard that about Kane, but I wouldn't be surprised. Other guys in wrestling have a reputation for being able to shape their bodies and gain and lose weight seemingly at will...Kevin Sullivan is one that comes to mind, as he was cutting weight and putting on weight all the time back in the day for bodybuilding competitions. This was before his 1990s run in WCW, of course.

re: steamboat and HoF - assuming the rumors are true, they try to limit the number of HUGE names they put in each year. Last year was eddie and bret, this year was dusty and...someone else. While Steamboat might not be a WWF world champ, he's definitely a sentimental favorite among all the fans, and probably wouldve been received as just as big a star, if not bigger, than dusty. Makes sense to me - they could either induct hogan, flair, piper, rhodes, hart, steamboat, LOD, etc, etc, all in the same year, or drag them out. there's no doubt that Ricky deserves it, its just a matter of time.

"2. Why is it that WWE is trying to make Cena into a submission wrestler? I actually like Cena, but I did not like the way that Wrestlemania 22 and 23 ended, not because Cena won, but how he won. I was really perturbed that they made Benoit tap out to him the Raw before 'Mania! That is just not right.

I asked our old friend Penguin this question, and he replied with the following:

They aren't making him a submission wrestler. He's still a power wrestler but like most guys he added a new finisher to his arsenal."

Cena sucks.

"What he said. Personally, I think it gives Cena depth to have more than one finisher, one that is a submission move. Not a bad idea from where I sit."

But he still sucks.

and to think, back in the early days of cena's rapper character, I used to get through SD in a little over an hour, because I fast-forwarded pretty much everything except the matches.....and cena's entrance. i even made my roommate a cena fan back when he was a heel.....wow, tazz's pink shirt is EXTREME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry, got ECW in the background - need to get it off my dvr so I dont lose more vball matches, or episodes of "how i met your mother"

"3. How long after WCW closed did Time/Warner finally get all of the guaranteed contracts paid and done with? Who were some of the last guys still getting paid after April 2001?"

Ya know, Jamie Kelner is a dirty sonuvabitch.

sorry, but it had to be said, and i havent seen anyone else say it recently.

" Also, I think he might want to preserve Flair's spot as the most prolific world champion of all time. "

ya know, if he does, I respect that. HHH HHHas stayed away from tHHHe title for a wHHHile now, and tHHHe main event picture (because he's been injured recently), so my HHHate HHHas lessened. but with the news that Cena will surpass HHH's reign towards the end of this year, my Cena hate is in full swing. Why would I pay to see a mediocre wrestler when i know he's going to win?

Wasnt Who in WCW? I remember Jim wrestling as Who on WCW Saturday Night.

"He did wear a Hollywood Hogan shirt several times, so I guess the best way to describe him would be as an associate and on-again off-again friend of Hogan's."

Although.....the hogan shirt had hogan's name in red, so maybe he was secretly aligned with the wolfpac.....okay, i'll come clean, thats not my original lame idea, bret hart actually wrote that in one of his weekly columns during that time to keep the fans guessing.....thats when i realized bret was kinda crazy.

"Upon his return to the WWF in the summer of 1990, Slaughter set aside his love for America and claimed that we had become a weak country. "

Actually....if I remember correctly, his first appearance back in the WWF, he either gave, or received the "Great American Award" which i thought was weird, since a month later he turned on america.

keep up the good work cook! - Manu Bumb

I don't remember Who appearing in WCW. I wonder if WWF would have cared enough to file a lawsuit over it. Probably, wrestling can be petty like that.

Questions!

Manu has a bunch of questions sitting in the in-box, so let's get those taken care of...

heres what i want to know - if the hardys hold the Raw tag titles longer than helms held the CW title, will he become the longest reigning champion in SD history?

No. The Raw tag team title is not a Smackdown title, even if it is defended occasionally on Smackdown. This leads to your next question, actually...

And can the hardys legally defend the Raw tag titles on SD?

As long as Vince McMahon said they could...many promotions have had their belts defended on other promoter's shows in order to boost awareness of their promotion in places they don't usually run shows. The NWA title was defended in Madison Square Garden under the jurisdiction of the WWWF in the late 70s...if that's possible, surely there's nothing wrong with Raw titles being defended on Smackdown and vice versa.

i guess both are moot points, since logic (and the brand extension) doesnt exist in the WWE, kinda like time travel on 'heroes', but if it did, you gotta admit those would be two damn good questions.

I don't have to admit anything.

so, living out there, do you watch OVW/go to the shows? if so, what did you think of the time period that paul heyman was in charge? i read reports of that every week, and it sounded good to me. i wish i had videos of that.

I was never able to make it to an OVW show when I was down at the University from 2002-06. Their Wednesday night shows usually conflicted with my class schedule or classwork or other things I had going on. One of my main regrets about my college years that don't involve girls I wasn't able to get intimate with. The Heyman period was pretty interesting...I didn't get to watch many weeks of it, but he did a pretty good job of getting people over as heels & babyfaces and putting on long matches. The Johnny Jeter/Matt Cappotelli feud was especially well done, as Matt got over huge as a babyface and Johnny was put over as the biggest dick in OVW history. And they put that guy in the Spirit Squad...I don't know how Danny Davis hasn't pulled most of his own hair out at this point. If it was me training all those guys for nothing I'd have snapped a long time ago.

how sad is it when i think letisha (leticia?) is a decent backstage interviewer?

I am biased against Leticia because she went to the University of Kentucky. Sure, my best friend went there too, but I still hold a lot of hate in my heart for Big Blue Nation. Well, hate's too strong a word because they really haven't done anything in years to deserve hate.

Hey, haven't they beat your Cards three years in a row in basketball?

Shut up! On a serious note, Leticia isn't exactly Gene Okerlund or even Todd Grisham at this point, but she has plenty of time to improve. And I'd rather look at her than Jeremy Borash, so that's gotta count for something. She's still a dirty Wildcat though, so I can't support her too much.

My friend and I finally got around to watching the TNA Lockdown PPV over the weekend, and of course the jaded fans started up the "fire Russo" chant. This made me curious about something. Has there even been another time where fans began to chant about firing the main booker of a company? I've been an avid wrestling fan since the mid 90's, however I cannot remember hearing a similar chant. I suppose it could have happened toward the dying days of WCW. I, like many other people, had long since given up on them and turned my attention to the WWE. - Cory

TNA fans did chant about firing Jeff Jarrett once upon a time, but this doesn't seem to happen very often. I don't think anybody in Minnesota ever chanted about firing Verne Gagne, and oddly enough I don't remember it happening in WCW either. I think this phenomenon is exclusive to TNA...so there's at least one thing they can call their own.

How many wrestlers are injured now? Can you find that information? - Isaac T. Yarrell

The best place to find this sort of information on a weekly basis (at least for the top two North American wrestling promotions) is to check out The Wrestling News Experience every Monday here at 411mania.com. It's written by some roody poo.

Brandon Ray has five questions...

1. I remember a long time ago, I think in late 1996, Shawn Michaels and Owen Hart had a match on Raw, and all I remember is Shawn hitting a clothesline on Owen over the ropes to the outside, then HBK kind of celebrating to the crowd a bit, and then suddenly he grabbed his head and just collapsed. I remember the refs and even Owen checking him out wondering exactly what happened. Was this real or just some work? If it was a work, what exactly was the point of it? Any big storyline come from it or something?

John Bryant also had a question about this storyline, which has become relevant in recent weeks since they're kind of repeating it with HBK's current storyline. The point of it was that Michaels had been assaulted outside a Syracuse night club in October 1995 and needed to take some time off to recover from injuries. Upon his return, he had a match with Owen Hart where he collapsed in the middle of it. This was put over as the after effects of post concussion syndrome due to the concussion he suffered during the attack. The incident in the ring was a work and led to Michaels teasing a retirement before coming back to win the 1996 Royal Rumble. Owen got to take credit for putting HBK out of action and won a Slammy Award for it, so everybody was happy.

2. This is just asking for your opinion, but a lot of people pretty much for the most part haven't liked the whole brand draft thing, some have, but most haven't from what I've seen. I think for the first few years it had been going pretty successful, but now it just doesn't seem as good as it use to, mainly because there aren't many challengers for the titles, a good example being the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship. It's cool the Hardy Boyz have them, but they don't really have much competition compared to back in the day when they had the Dudleyz, E&C, APA, RTC, New Age Outlaws, etc. But anyways, with Smackdown losing Booker T, Mr. Kennedy, and The Undertaker to injuries, and even Rey, and now having to send Edge to Smackdown!, and possibly Randy as well, do you think WWE needs to end this draft? I ask because when you think about it, Smackdown may look fine now when they send Edge and Orton over there (again, MAY send Orton), but if they do that, now the only heel challengers Cena has for the title are Umaga and The Great Khali, and I don't think people want any of that, so it just looks uneven. It's been looking that way for a while to me. Kind of the same with Smackdown, since you know the common formula has always been a face champion to fight a heel challenger, or vice versa, and in Smackdown's case, the only face challenger Edge has is Batista, b/c Taker is gone, and the only other real options for challenging Edge would be Benoit and Kane, and they haven't been part of the World Title hunt in a LONG time, and I doubt that'll change now. Plus I read that Mark Henry returned, which makes me think he may feud with Batista, and if that's the case, there is really no face challenger for Edge to face. There just really isn't much competition anymore in my opinion, or many options because of the whole draft. So again, do you think WWE needs to end this?

I have always argued that ending the brand extension would be a bad idea, and I continue to believe that. Now, I wouldn't be against ending ECW and keeping Raw & Smackdown as the two brands. Three brands seems to be a bit too much for WWE to handle at this point in time. Nevertheless, I don't think the concerns you express in this e-mail are going to exist much longer, because they're going to do a draft lottery in a couple of weeks and shake everything up. Which is for the best. Who doesn't like shaking things up? I've been trying to do that for years...but enough about my love life, let's get back to the questions.

3. We all know about Undertaker's undefeated Wrestlemania streak. My question is, do you know if they had planned long ago that he would have an undefeated streak, or did he go about 3 or 4 years not being beaten before they realized "Oh man, he's never been beaten, we got to work with this." ?

Undertaker almost never lost in his first few years in the WWF...it wasn't just a WrestleMania thing, it was a "This guy never loses" thing. I don't think they really thought too much about it until the ninth one or so, because that was when they really started hyping it up going into his match at WrestleMania X-Seven against Triple H. It's possible they might have planned it much further in advance than that, but I don't think it started as anything different than Undertaker winning all the time like usual.

4. Mick Foley has been known for taking the most dangerous and painful bumps, but have you ever heard what his most painful moment was wrestling-wise? I would think him being tossed off the Hell in A Cell cage at King of the Ring but I heard there have been other spots that hurt more than that moment.

If I remember my Foley reading correctly, he said that one of, if not the most painful injuries he ever suffered was a torn abdominal muscle he suffered in a match against Ron Simmons. That was what led to him managing Barbarian and being out of action for a couple of months in late 1992, before he turned babyface and had that series of matches with Vader that really put him on the map as a guy who should have been a main eventer in the eyes of many WCW fans. I think he said that hurt more than the HIAC bumps, but I could be wrong.

5. This is kind of wrestling related, but it's been a question that has always really pondered me. I've seen many wrestlers getting busted open the hard way, whether in the head or maybe their arms or whatever body part. Well I remembered watching TNA one night and I saw Christian and Steiner and AJ and such attack Abyss, and busted him open real bad, and they showed him having a huge cut on his arm kind of where his tattoo was, that obviously needed stitches, and Abyss has huge tattoos on his arms. So my question is, in Abyss's case, if you are cut real bad on your shoulder to where you need stitches, and that cut is up to where it's across where a tattoo is, does that screw up or ruin the tattoo in some way?

Good question. Having no tattoos myself, I'm not really in tune to what affects or ruins one. I would think that if the cut was big enough, it could mess up the look of the tattoo, but I could be completely wrong. Any of you guys got tattoos and like to cut yourselves?

For the record, I don't recommend cutting yourself. Especially if you've got something to live for.

Ok I got the hang of this, whats the deal with New jack and Vic Grimes (post XPW)? Legit heat? - Kurt27bo

New Jack was pretty pissed off at Vic after the incident at Living Dangerously 2000 where they flew off of a scaffold and Vic pretty much landed on Jack's head. You can see how this could create problems, especially since Jack had to pull Vic off the scaffold because Vic had second thoughts about doing the stunt while up there. Not that I blame Vic Grimes for having second thoughts, but once you get up there and it's PPV...you gotta do what you gotta do. And Jack ended up losing sight in his eye due to the injuries suffered that night. So once Vic Grimes & New Jack met up in XPW, Jack decided he was going to get some revenge, and nearly killed Vic by throwing him off another scaffold. Vic ended up bouncing off the ropes...Jack was aiming for the ring post. There's probably still some heat there, but I don't think Vic Grimes is going to do anything about it.

JLAJRC has four questions...

1.) I found this music video on Youtube featuring Juventud Guerarra and a VERY creepy Eric Bishchoff. Is this some fanmade video or was this part of some angle in WCW I forgot about? I'm just wondering why Bischoff is in it.

For future reference, anybody asking me about a YouTube video should include a link of said video so I know what in the blue hell you're talking about. If you're talking about this, it certainly was never an angle. That's some pretty funny shit though.

2.) We often hear of iron man matches that last 60 minutes and even longer in the past, but that's between the men. What's the longest women's match in wrestling history?

The longest women's match...one of them took place on August 8, 1980. It was a 60 minute draw between Rimi "Jaguar" Yokota & Yumi Ikeshita for the All Pacific title. There was also a 60 minute draw pitting Yokota & Yuko Kosugi against The Bloody & Lioness Asuka on July 5, 1998. On August 22, 1999, Asuka & Kyoko Inoue went to a 60 minute draw. I do not believe that there has been a women's match that went past 60 minutes.

3.) Did Leaping Lanny Poffo/The Genius write the poems he read, or did someone else do it?

Lanny wrote his own stuff, in fact he's written books with limericks since his retirement to warn against the dangers of smoking. Check it out at lannypoffo.com if you don't believe me!

4.) Just how many suplexes are there in wrestling? From off the top of my head, I can think of the following:
Regular Suplex
Superplex
Perfectplex
Belly to Belly Suplex
German Suplex
Reverse Suplex
Side Suplex
Delayed Suplex

Without making a long list that would certainly be incomplete, I advise you to check out Death Valley Driver's list of wrestling moves that includes every suplex under the sun. Unfortunately it was last updated in 2001, so there have probably been a few additions to the list since then.

Red Ripper has some Chris Jericho questions...

I had a few questions about Chris Jericho. I recently found a match he had against X-Pac on Raw is War, but it was First Blood. It only lasted a few minutes but the finish was Pac throwing a glass bottle against Jericho's head and then cutting him with one of the shards of glass. My question is do you know about when this match took place? I feel like it took place sometime in '99 but I can't remember. Also, was Pac the one blading Jericho? I watched but the whole time I didn't see Jericho once have his hands near his face to blade for the finish. Would they really let one of their wrestlers cut someone else like that?

The Jericho/X-Pac first blood match took place on the September 25, 2000 edition of Raw, which was the first episode of Raw to air on TNN/Spike TV. X-Pac was the one that bladed Jericho...this is not usually the way its done, but if the wrestler trusts his opponent to do it and the promoter trusts the wrestler not to fuck it up, it's not a problem. I don't think they would let New Jack do something like that if he worked for them though. X-Pac, he's ok.

Back during the Invasion I remember Jericho using a Forward Russian Legsweep quite a bit. Most notably he used it to try and screw the rock at Survivor Series. My questions are when did he start using it, and why? And is there a reason he stopped using it afterward?

He wanted to try out a new finisher because the Walls of Jericho weren't getting people to tap out all that often and the Lionsault wasn't getting too many pinfalls. This move was called the Breakdown, and it was pretty effective for a few weeks but never got over as much as his previously established finishers (that usually didn't finish matches, but still got over). When moves don't get a desired reaction, wrestlers tend to stop using them, though I think Jericho did break out the Breakdown for his longer matches later on.

Why hasn't "Wrestling with Shadows" been released on DVD. I think its the best wrestling documentary out there. - Brendon Vallee

It was released on DVD over in the United Kingdom, and this year has been released on DVD in Canada, but has yet to be released on DVD here in the U.S. The only reason I can think of for this is that George Bush is the devil. Seriously though, I figure it'd be an issue with the company that distributed the movie. I'd write them a nasty letter and see if that helps.

Frenzal has three questions...

1. I think it was in the Slamboree PPV, but there was a match between DDP and Raven in a 'bowree death cage match' or something. It looked to me like a HitC match, except not as big and with weapons inside (including a VCR if I recall). Was the VCR used actually real? and was this gimmick used before the first HitC match or inspired by it?

Slamboree 1998 featured a Bowery Death Cage Match pitting Diamond Dallas Page against Raven. It is currently up on YouTube, I don't think I'll post a link though because that will likely lead to the video being pulled. This match took place after HIAC...the cage does have a similar look, but I don't think it was meant to be a total ripoff. WCW had had matches with cages with roofs long before this. The VCR looks like an actual VCR to me.

2. What was the LWO stable/storyline in WCW? What happened to it, who was in it, and did it actually go anywhere?

The Latino World Order was Eddie Guerrero's answer to the various incarnations of the New World Order that were taking up TV time at the expense of Eddie and his fellow luchadores. Members included Juventud Guerrera, Rey Mysterio Jr. (he was forced to join), Silver King, El Dandy, Hector Garza, Psicosis, La Parka, Damien, and Villanos IV & V. The group pretty much fell apart when Eddie went out of action due to injuries suffered in a car accident, and other than Mysterio getting to feud with Kevin Nash, not much happened for the old LWO members.

3. At what # victory did Goldberg's streak end? And what is the longest streak to your knowledge?

The streak ended at 173 according to WCW records...the actual number was probably less than that, but it was an impressive one nonetheless. I don't know if there have been longer ones because wrestling usually doesn't keep track of records like that, so I would have to go with that one being the longest. Though, it would be interesting to see if older wrestlers like the Shiek had longer streaks...that sort of information would be tough to come by.

NYGroover82 has three questions about the Madman from the Sudan...

1.What are the scars on Abdullah the Butcher come from?

Wikipedia tells me that they came from "frequent blading using the bolts surrounding the ring posts". One can assume they would have come from frequent blading that went a little bit too deep. New Jack once claimed that he had it surgically done, but nobody else has seconded that opinion.

2. Why didn't Abdullah ever wrestle in the WWF

This is something I often wondered about. Abdullah never stayed in one place very long, in fact, it seems like he wrestled in every promotion except the WWF. Apparently he was supposed to come in sometime in the 1980s and feud with Hulk Hogan, but it just never happened. I think it was either due to money or the fact that the WWF usually marketed towards children and Abdullah wasn't a very family friendly wrestler. I'd also bet that Vince Jr. didn't like Abdullah's look very much. At any rate, it does seem awfully strange that Abdullah the Butcher never wrestled in the WWF/E at some point in time.

3. Have you or know anyone who has ate at his restaurant?

I have not, and I don't know anybody who has, but I have seen some accounts of the food on the Interweb...general opinion seems to be that it's a fun place to go to. The food is decent enough, and sometimes you'll see Abdullah there greeting people and forking people and whatnot.

I was watching a Raw from April 2000....the show where Jericho beat HHH for the title but it was reversed. The show took place at, I believe, Penn State.

They kept showing backstage promos of Kurt Angle walking around telling people to practice abstinence. What was going on at the time that Angle was doing this? - JS Bragg

Angle was a role model to young children everywhere upon entering the WWF, and he led a lifestyle of high morality and class. Included in this was his preaching of abstinence to children. On the other end of the spectrum you had Big Show, who was handing out condoms and acting like a fool. Basically, Angle was a goody two-shoes. I much preferred that Angle to the somewhat insane character he's become in the last couple of years.

I had a question about wrestlers weight. Does the WWE overexaggerate on wrestlers billed weight? Edge is billed at 250 lbs and I know that is b.s. because Orton is the same height and is only 245 lbs and looks bigger than Edge. What other wrestlers billed weight is overexaggerated? - John

Every promotion that has ever existed has likely lied about one of their wrestlers' weight at one point or another. There is no way Edge weighs 250 lbs. unless he's got some weights in his boots. I also question Austin Aries weighing 225 lbs. like the ROH ring announcer claimed he did. To answer your question, WWE and other wrestling promotions lie about weight all the time, and it'd be easier to list which wrestlers go by their actual weight than which ones don't. Mick Foley weighed 287 lbs. for 15 years. And did anybody think Dusty Rhodes weighed 265 lbs.? Come on man.

Hey i had a couple questions all about one wrestler. I remember watching WCW Nitro one night and this guy named Blitzkreig had his first wrestling match i think against Rey Mysterio. That was when Rey still had his mask and wore those tights with the question marks. Anyway i remmeber it was actually an entertaining match. Everything you would expect from WCW luchadores. My questions are whatever happened to Blitzkreig? I know he had like 2 or 3 matches after that but i never saw him after that. The other question is what nationality is he? Because if he was hispanic wouldnt it offend and disrespect some luchadores that he was hispanic and had a German wrestling name? Or i could be totally wrong and he could be white and than it would be fine but hey thats why im asking you. So whats the deal with Blitzkreig? - Joel M.

Jay Ross, the man behind the Blitzkrieg persona, left WCW in 1999 after a few months because he could make more money working at a computer company. He had a brief run in the California independent circuit, but retired shortly afterwards. He is caucasian. I'm not quite sure I understand what you're getting at with the question though, because I'm not sure what the problem would be with a Hispanic having a German wrestling name.

Soooo...are Cade Murdoch two gay hillbillies or badass rednecks? I swear
it changes every week with these two. One week they are mean and beating
the snot out of people, the next Lance Cade has a flower shirt on and
Murdoch is spitting out "deliverence-esque" lines. - Nelson

Well, they are hanging out with Jeff Hardy. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal!

I have a question for 411. Why was the Conquistadores picked for the second annual Survivor Series in the tag-team elimination match? Did it help that they were a "weak" team and provided a foil for the Demolition/Powers of Pain angle? The rest of the teams were pretty good (Young Stallions were questionable, but they were receiving a TINY push back then), so why the Conquistadores? Were there any other good tag teams in the WWE at that time to be in that match? - Clyde

Because just about every tag team on the roster was already in that tag team elimination match. On one team you had the Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Rockers, Powers of Pain and Young Stallions. On the other team, you had Demolition, Brainbusters, Rougeaus, Bolsheviks, and Conquistadores. That's like 5 more tag teams than WWE has right now. As for why they were one of the last teams left in the match...I dunno, you gotta have a surprise in there every once in awhile. Who'd it hurt?

I've just gotten finished reading the MeeThinks Saturday Spectacular and there was a video on there from some autograph session featuring the Iron Sheik and Warrior. You probably know what I'm about to ask, but what the hell is going on in that video? All I see is the Sheik telling the Warrior that he knows he's from Georgia, and telling some other guy "fuck you, you are a fucking asshole." over and over again. So what happened? - Eric

Well, to make a long story short, Warrior Warrior refused to shake Sheik's hand because of some comments Sheik had made accusing Warrior of drug usage. Sheik went crazy as he usually does...this is actually pretty standard Iron Sheik behavior and is just making news because it was on video and involves Warrior Warrior. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a crazy Iron Sheik speech as much as anybody, but it's starting to get sad seeing him all hopped up on drugs all the time and acting like a lunatic.

I have a quick question regarding cigarettes in wrestling. I heard that Ron Killings is an active smoker, and I was surprised tha TNA would just come out and say that a former heavweight champion smokes . But then I read that Paul Wight recently quit. Why would a multi-million dollar company like WWE let a major player like Wight smoke for, I assume, years and do you know of anyone else on the rosters that do? Thanks - Trevor

Smoking cigarettes is legal. Some companies do have policies against their employees smoking, but no wrestling company that I know of has rules against it. This is probably because smoking is a way that some people deal with stress, and wrestling can be a very stressful business. For the record, I've never smoked so much as a cigarette...not smoking and not having tattoos makes it pretty obvious I'm not in the wrestling business, doesn't it?

As for who actually smokes, Chris Hyatte used to keep a running tally of wrestlers that smoked cigarettes or mary jane or anything else...the most recent list of his I could find was from September 2002. I'm sure he updated it sometime after that, but IP doesn't archive his columns and I couldn't find anything in my limited search of his DOI archives. Say what you will about the man, but he knew his smoking.

Yes, I just mentioned Chris Hyatte in a 411 article and didn't bury him. Bet you thought you'd never see that, eh?

My question is in regards to a WCW Nitro telecast somewhere between October
and December of 1999. It may have been an episode of Thunder, I'm not sure.
There was an episode that Kevin Nash came out and cut this profanity laced
promo (on the Powers That Be, I believe). This promo was not edited, nor was
Nash's language censored when it aired? Do you remember this promo, whether it
was unscripted or not? - Wayne

I don't remember seeing this at all, but is this the promo you're referring to? It was on the December 20, 1999 edition of Nitro...

"You know...when you break into this business, it's like no other business in the world. Twelve months a year you're on the road - twelve months a year you go up and down the road in cars with guys. When you first break into this business, the veterans sit you in the back and they tell you the codes and the conducts that the boys live by. One of the codes we live by is 'the boys NEVER screw one of the boys.' Now what you see out here week in and week out is one thing. What you see behind these curtains, or I should say what you DON'T see behind these curtains, well, that's a different story. You see there's two separate entities in this business. In one hand, you've got the boys, and in the other hand, you've got the office. Night in, night out, we come out here and give our body...you see, the boys - we're kind of a fraternity - we kinda govern ourselves. The office - they're all business. It's all about the dollar. The office takes, and takes, and takes, and takes. Because, quite frankly, the office doesn't give [a shit] about us. We got no benefits - we got no medical, no dental, we got no retirement, we got no disability - the son of a bitches don't even pay our Social Security! But I'll guarantee you one thing - if the office can find a way to screw one of the boys to make a dollar, I'll guarantee ya, one of the boys is gonna get screwed. Now Bill Goldberg, I don't give a damn about you, but what happened to you last night in Starrcade was bull[shit]. You see, in this fraternity, if we don't watch out for ourselves, we're in a lot of trouble, guys. It's about survival, 'cause the office - those blood suckin'-- ... they'll take and take and take, guys, until we got nothing left, then they'll throw us to the curb. And that leads me to you, Bret Hart. Last night, Bret Hart, you broke that code. You screwed one of the boys. Through the office you found a way for your personal gain, and you screwed one of the boys. You know, Bret Hart, you tell everybody that you're the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be - well, buddy boy, you're nothing but a piece [of shit]."

Thanks to CRZ. To answer your question, nothing in wrestling is truly unscripted except for ROH Unscripted. Heh.

Clearly I know these two characters (One Man Gang/Akeem) were played by the same guy. However why did the WWF switch to the "Akeem" character following his great impact on the first ever Royal Rumble? - Mark Keeping

Because they're idiots? I dunno, obviously somebody thought it was a good idea, and it certainly resulted in some pretty entertaining Wrestlecrap. It did result in him being pushed higher in the card and teaming with Big Bossman in a feud against Hulk Hogan, so it wasn't all bad.

I distinctly remember Edge debuting as a member of DX or an angle involving that. Is it true that when he first debuted he was "a new DX member"? - Scott Haynes

Nope. Edge debuted as a "troubled soul" that had previous issues with fellow newcomer Gangrel. Nobody really knew what the issues were, but soon enough Gangrel was joined by Edge's brother Christian. And soon after that Edge joined up with them and the Brood was formed. Some have said that Edge was supposed to be WWF's answer to Raven, but I don't really buy it because Edge rarely talked when he first debuted and didn't have a bunch of hangers-on following him around. Sure, they were both "dark, brooding characters", but Raven was so much more than that.

Well, that's all for this week. Send your stuff in to [e-mail], and don't forget to check out the 411 blog because you never know when I'll actually update the thing! See ya next week!